Alex Delivery
Star Destroyer
Jagjaguwar


'Star Destroyer' for me begins when singer Nik Bozic drops out two minutes into Komad, the indie rock signifiers melting away with his departure. A fey female vocal traces wordless nursery lines, machines start clanking and whirring, before at precisely 4:53 a trance-inducing motorik groove is borne. The two distorted lead synth lines that spray the heaving robotic stutter are the best parts of this, the New York quintet's debut. Komad becomes a delicious mash of primitive rhythm and untidy melody, a theme Alex Delivery regularly revisits. Similarly fine is the middle section of Milan, which like a straight Black Dice gone Cluster, is impressively spartan, the melodies left with lots of room to move.

Of the six tracks, the three longer ones work best. Rainbows is too earnest, too soppy, Bozic's coy vocals spread thin over grubby synthesised lilt. Scotty all but buries an unimaginative carnival vibe with echoing drum blasts; at just over two minutes it serves neither as valid segue nor interesting vignette. At eleven minutes plus, Sheath-Wet meanwhile makes for an enjoyable interpretation of classic krautrock synth-bob, still, not scaling the same heights as Komad and Milan. Closer Vesna, with twinkling piano, bird sounds and strings, eventually becomes one of the album's prettiest moments, echoing the grandness of Mercury Rev, its crispness at odds with 'most all that came before it.

This record, two years in the making, tries too hard in a few places; the musty smell of boutique-weird for the art school set lingers over the vocal-led tracks. Truth be told, the vocals don't take up that much space but before long they grate. When Alex Delivery lets the clicks and synths (and the cowbell) do the talking, the effect is far more gratifying.

Lenin Simos